The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-08
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WHAT'S IN A NAMEP
The Old Custom of the Lamars in the
Selection of Cognomens.


From Washington Letter to the Louisville
Cotuie,-Journdl.
The "Lounger on the Avenuen has this to
say of the Lamars: "Itwas the custom in
the family of the Lamars to name the sons
for those who i'll their lives and death had
been the most eminent eXemplarS Of the love
of human freedom and their own people.
So the orator at Charleston was named for
hero who died to save Rome, his city, and
his Roman kim He was a thinker from his
youth The institution of slavery he looked
at with the eyes of philosopher Given to
the South originally by New England mer-
chants. whose enterprise led them into what
they euphoniously called the Guinea trade,
the climate and conditions of the States be-
low the thirty-ninth parallel fostered it and
it grew into the mighty power it was. ]
have often thought what a sensation could
be made in Boston, if list of those mer-
chants who made the fortune their blue
blooded descendants enjoy out of the slave
trade were printed.
~ think I will do it myself one of these
days, for the fact is capable Of absolute
demonstration. Slave labor became the de-
pendence of the hardy white man in open
ing the new malarial lands on Southern
rivers to healthful cultivation. But the di-
vine origin of the institution which was
gylnan called to a Southern pulpit, who
thought thus to please his flock, was never
believed by any Of the Lamars. Mr.. Lamar
favored the secession of the State because
he believed in the broadcast human
rights. The Sumner episode grew out
of this same tendency. When
Charles Sumner, the apostle of freedom,
died, the country was astonished to read,
among his most earnest eulogists the words
fs2Ia
lieutenant-colonel, the close personal friend
and, upon occasion, the vigorous defender
Of the President of the Southern Confed-
elacy. As | said above, the Lamars have
erer possessed the courage Of their convic-
lions, and they are not slow to say what
they believe need scarcely
observe that Mr.. Sumner was not
a popular figure in Mississippi, nor was
an Grafton so eulogistic of his purity of pur-
pose and character as was that of the then
Representative in Congress of the Second
Mississippi district calculated to increase
the orators popularity This did not affect
Mr.. Lamar in the least. His speech is his
tory, and the prophets in the North among
the Republican journals who predicted that
that GRAFTON had killed Lamar were rem
dered dumb when at the next election, in a
time of unparalleled excitement, the dis
tinguished gentleman was renominated by
acclamatlOn, ana cIecteu by inc largest
majority he ever has received.
mo man knows Mississippi or Southern
temperament and character better than Mr..
Lamar. He feels that he can depend upon
the instructive love of Justice that is inherent
in his constituents, and that their judg-
ment will be unbiased and just. With that
knowledge as a certainty, he says and does
precisely what he believes to be right, and
whether it is a eillogy on Sumner, defense
of Mr.. jefferson Davis on the floor of the
Senate, or OF Mr.. Calhoun, he is always
listened TO with respect, and his honesty OF
purpose unchallenged."